Dashiell Bennett

Cub reliever Carlos Marmol is taking a leave of absence from his day job to fly to New York, as his wife is scheduled to give birth there this week. So then who was the very non-pregnant "female companion" he was snuggling with two weeks ago?

The otherwise uninteresting transaction note in today's paper would have gone unnoticed by all but the most hardcore NL-only fantasy players, were it not for the pictures taken at an MMA event in Chicago on May 15. On that night, Marmol was not shy about his love for hand-to-hand combat sports, nor was he shy about the young lady who accompanied him to the fight. The unidentified gal was not named as his wife, his girlfriend, or some sort of really close family friend, but she did express a desire to not see his pretty face tampered with. However, the fact that she was drinking what looks like beer two weeks ago and does not appear to be hiding a pumpkin under her shirt leads one to believe that she is not the aforementioned wife about to give birth as early as today. Curious.

There isn't any other information online about the couple's status—separated, divorced, agreeing to disagree?—but he was not exactly hiding his night on the town with his lady traveler, since even the Sun-Times had a shot of them canoodling. Also, no cares enough about Carlos Marmol to know without fact checking that his wife is nine months pregnant.

Advertisement

Of course, there's always the chance that the wife doesn't even exist and he will simply make up any excuse possible to avoid watching a Pirates game.